I've never seen one before and it was too cool to pass up.

Sorry, it's not a car.

I was wandering through another antique store and came across this. It was too cool to pass up so I bought myself a birthday present. The wife even thought it was cool.

It's called a Sitar, the Indian version of a guitar. I've never seen one before. It's a beautiful instrument. No, I'll probably never be able to play it.

Sounds like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPEIaCy-Paw

Well known for being the most difficult instrument in the world to learn how to play.

It looks like it's missing strings. They sound wicked cool though.

In reply to mndsm:

It is, and several of them have been replaced with nylon. I'll have to see if I can get a set.

Cool!

Didn't the Beatles use a sitar a lot? At least in Norwegian Wood IIRC.

In reply to Javelin:

They were heavily influenced by Ravi Shankar.

oldsaw wrote: In reply to Javelin: They were heavily influenced by Ravi Shankar.

IIRC Ravi Shankar went to his reward or was re-incarnated or whatever just a few years ago & his daughter has taken over his sitar playing bidness

I saw Ravi Shankar in concert around 1969 or 1970. It was enjoyable & interesting I think, but I'm not sure now because that was a long time ago & I was stoned.

Javelin wrote: Cool! Didn't the Beatles use a sitar a lot? At least in Norwegian Wood IIRC.

I wouldn't say a lot, but some.

.

Love You To by the Beatles was IMHO the best of their tracks using the sitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF90rX43VpE

I've never understood how you were supposed to play with the frets OVER the strings like that.